Turkish prosecutor seeks arrests of Saudis over Khashoggi murder

Istanbul’s chief prosecutor has filed warrants for the arrest of a top aide to Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and the deputy head of foreign intelligence on suspicion of planning the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The prosecutor’s office concluded that there is “strong suspicion” that Saud al-Qahtani and Ahmed Asiri, who were both removed from their positions following the murder, were among the planners of the murder, two Turkish officials said on Wednesday.

Jamal Khashoggi, a United States resident and columnist for the Washington Post, was killed shortly after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

The official added that Saudi Arabia could address international concern by extraditing all suspects in the case to Turkey. The application for the warrants was filed on Tuesday.

At time of publication, Saudi Arabia has not publicly responded to the request.